Monday, March 18, 2024
“Eliminate a Bad Habit for 24-hours”
What a way to start the week! Argh! Instead of indulging in my favorite means of escape from Monday, I’m potentially going to be shackled to some silly devotion that says I need to give up a habit today.
Typically, I don’t think of bad habits as things that restrict or control me. I think about them exactly in the opposite manner, that they often help to free me from stressful days at work, difficult relationships, or tragic losses in life. Sometimes I deserve the option to indulge a little, as long as I don’t let it control me.
But (I must sneak a butt in here), in reality, bad habits do, in fact, exercise some control over our lives. Some of our habits are expensive, so we can’t indulge too much and remain financially afloat. Some of our tendencies are terribly unhealthy, creating mental and physical complications that can be life-threatening. A few of our habits monopolize our attention, removing us from relationships and activities.
Bad habits can create all kinds of issues that we choose to ignore. This is the opportunity that many of us need: Give up one of these habits for 24 hours. For those who have been participating in these Lenten Challenges, you might expect that some rules about the Challenge are about to follow. Not today.
Each of us knows what bad habit we need to kick today. The only rule is the time requirement of 24 hours, so if you haven’t engaged in your habit since yesterday, go back to that moment and count forward until today. For this reason, a few folks will be ahead of the rest of us.
Today is the day! Let’s give up a bad habit for 24 hours and prove to ourselves that with God’s help, anything is possible!
“Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” (Matthew 19:26, NIV)
